In modern microelectronic integrated-circuit technology, a silicon wafer is lithographically patterned to accommodate a large number of interconnected electronic components (field effect transistors, resistors, capacitors, etc). The technology relies on the semiconducting properties of silicon and on lithographic patterning methods. Increasing the density of electronic components and reducing the power consumption per component are two objectives in the microelectronics industry, which have driven the steady reduction in the size of the components in the past decades. However, miniaturization of silicon-based electronics will reach a limit in the near future, primarily because of limitations imposed by the material properties of silicon, and doped silicon, at the nanoscale level.
To sustain the current trend in microelectronics beyond the limits imposed by silicon-based microelectronics technologies, alternative technologies need to be developed. Requirements for such an alternative technology include: smaller feature sizes than feasible with silicon-based microelectronics, more energy-efficient electronic strategies, and production processes that allow large-scale integration, preferably using lithographic patterning methods related to those used in silicon-based microelectronic fabrication.